BJP hits out at Rahul Gandhi, says Congress doing communal politics

NEW DELHI: BJP today hit out at Rahul Gandhi over his reported comment that communal conflicts in UP have been "deliberately engineered", saying it was Congress which was doing communal politics and the statement itself reflected such a thinking.

Environment minister and senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said whatever is happening in Uttar Pradesh was because of Congress as it took support of the Samajwadi Party (SP), which is ruling the state, for ten years.

"If any party does communal politics, it is Congress. They had alliance with Muslim League. In Hyderabad they had tie up with MIM. Even now, in both the houses of Parliament... by discussing communal situation, their motive is to increase communal tension," Javadekar said while condemning Gandhi's statement.

The comments come after the Congress vice president told the Indian Express yesterday that the ongoing communal conflicts in Uttar Pradesh have been "artificially and deliberately engineered".

"Whatever is happening in Uttar Pradesh...this SP government which is there is because of them (Congress). It was the Congress which took their support for the last ten years," Javadekar said.

The BJP leader said that Rahul Gandhi's statement should not be given much importance as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already said that his vision is to take everybody together.

"Rahul's statement should not be given so much importance. Narendra Modi has already said one has to decide whether one would fight against poverty or Hindus and Muslims will fight against each other. The vision is to take everybody together.

"But Congress' thinking is totally communal and I condemn his statement because their communal thinking comes out of that," Javadekar added.

Gandhi had reportedly said, "Communal conflict is being artificially and deliberately engineered in our country, especially in Uttar Pradesh. This is a deliberate strategy to divide the poor of this country and pit brother against brother, to prevent people from uniting to fight the true enemy -- inequality, poverty and lack of opportunity,".